It’s been aptly said that “Too much of a good thing is worse than none at all.” Today the easy availability of over-the-counter vitamins provides both benefits and perils to medical consumers. Those who decide to be their own doctor should never forget the legal maxim, “Let the buyer beware.” Every year people assume that, if a little vitamin is good for you, more must be better. They often get more than they bargained for.

A story goes that hunters who tracked down and killed a bear were celebrating their prowess. But the bear had the last laugh. After they consumed its liver they developed acute vitamin A poisoning. Bear liver contains massive amounts of vitamin A.

For years controversy swirled around the value of vitamin E as a medical tonic. Last week I discussed how some critics condemned its use as the latest version of the old-fashioned snake-oil. But increasing scientific evidence suggests that vitamin E helps to protect us from many medical problems.

Ten years ago it was reported that large doses of vitamin E prevented cataracts in diabetic rats. At a recent meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences researchers revealed that patients who had taken supplementary vitamin E had less chance of developing cataracts.

Is vitamin E the latest version of the old-fashioned snake oil? Are pharmaceutical companies interested only in making a handsome profit? Or is there bone-fide scientific evidence that vitamin E will enable us to live a longer, healthier life? What are the facts in 1989?

Vitamin E has been a controversial vitamin for years. It’s proponents claim it’s beneficial for heart disease, diabetes, thrombophlebitis, skin ulcers, frostbite, and that it improves athletic prowess. It protects the lungs they claim, from pollution, takes the itch out of old scars and eases menopausal symptoms. Yet its antagonists have always cast a jaundiced eye at these claims.

“How can I rid myself of recurrent urinary infections?” a distraught patient asked me. Several courses of antibiotics had failed to end her discomfort. Now, with Cranberry Women’s Formula, there’s a natural treatment that helps to prevent frequent bladder infections, improve general health and, in the bargain, fights obesity.

Every year an estimated 30 to 50 million North American women suffer from cystitis. And they’re tired of hearing, “We know where you’re going!”

“We know where you’re going!” is not a phrase that women want to hear. But due to an aging population increasing numbers of women are rushing to the bathroom. Some are suffering from urinary infection or an overactive bladder. But increasing numbers of women need frequent changes of diapers due to urinary stress incontinence. Unfortunately, many women with this problem are too embarrassed to seek help. But there are ways to help relieve patients of this annoying disorder.

There’s a funny cartoon in The New Yorker magazine. It shows an elderly couple at the pharmacist’s counter. The man is saying, “I want the night-before-pill and she wants the morning-after-pill!

Let’s hope these cartoon characters had a pleasant and successful evening. But what happens to real people? And can the world’s most famous hockey coach make a difference for males too embarrassed to seek help for erectile dysfunction (ED)?

What should men and their wives know about the New Gold Standard? No, not the one associated with the London England Gold Market. Rather, the new gold standard of treating benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) in men. A report from The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is good news for hundreds of thousands of males who every year require surgery for this condition. And who worry that it may affect their sexual health.

There’s a story that should have made headlines around the world, but somehow it collected dust. In 2002, the British Journal, Lancet, reported that a scientist had suffered burns to his penis and scrotum while using a laptop computer. You might quickly conclude that he was naked and had fallen asleep with his laptop on his lap, but that was not the case. Rather, he was working with his trousers and underpants on. For want of a better word he had simply been “lap-scorched”.

How many times a week are we supposed to make love? Moreover, if erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs don’t work, what are you supposed to do?

The race of the century has started. No, it’s not a recap of the great horse race between Sea Biscuit and Northern Dancer. Rather, it’s the contest between three ED drugs. The prize for the winner? Billions of dollars.

Why didn’t doctors listen to their mothers? For years they counseled that cranberry juice was an effective way to treat urinary tract infections (UTI). Yet doctors passed off their advice as just another old-wive’s tale. Research now proves them wrong. And there’s a new super-charged clinically proven cranberry supplement, “Cran-Max”, to help people suffering from the “We-know-where-you’re-going” syndrome.

Has your husband become grumpy, sad, lacking in energy, falling asleep after dinner and finding less enjoyment in life? You may even have noticed that his pants are longer than they used to be. And that for the first time he’s having sexual problems. If so, he may be suffering from the male change of life, known as Andropause. And a wee dab of AndroGel may be all that he needs.

Dr. Jean Mailhot, Endocrinologist and Director of the Laval Andropause Center, says that one million Canadian men suffer from testosterone insufficiency. And that in the U.S. as few as five per cent of American men with low testosterone are being treated.

Mountain bikers are an athletic macho group. But are they good lovers? And how many have trouble getting their wives pregnant? Recent studies show that mountain bikers get more than exercise when they travel over the Swiss Alps.

Dr. Ferdinand Frauscher, head of the department of radiology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, recently reported interesting findings about mountain bikers to the Radiological Society of North America meeting.

What caused the sudden heart attack? Ask anyone this question and many would accuse too much cholesterol, chronic stress, smoking, obesity or bad genetics. But what about the role of the male hormone testosterone in causing cardiovascular disease? Is erectile dysfunction (ED) an early warning sign of heart attack? And what can we learn about testosterone treatment from a London Harley Street specialist?

Recently much has been written about the male menopause (Andropause). How decreasing amounts of testosterone contribute to the increasing number of impotent males. But it appears there’s more to testosterone than sexual potency.

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